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Kenner officials seek to close the book on old plan to relocate airport

Artist rendering airport expansion

A conceptual rendering of the new airport passenger terminal -- with a proposed 650,000-square-foot terminal complex that features two concourses with 30 gates. The plan to build a new terminal made earlier plans to move the airport, or potentially allow the state to take over its operation obsolete -- and also made obsolete the authority assigned to looking into those issues.

Now that New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is moving to build a new passenger terminal at Louis Armstrong International Airport, Kenner officials want to close the book on an airport plan from the Ray Nagin era. In 2008, there was talk of upgrading the airport in Kenner, having the state take it over from New Orleans or building a new airport elsewhere, so, the Legislature created a board to investigate those questions and potentially put plans into action.

It was the nine-member Southeast Regional Airport Authority, and it was given the authority to expropriate property in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Charles parishes. That worried Kenner officials.

On Thursday, the Kenner City Council is set to vote on a resolution asking Kenner's legislative delegation to support a bill that would turn back the clock. Put forward by Rep. Tom Willmott, R-Kenner, House Bill 1244 would simply dissolve the Southeast Regional Airport Authority.

Willmott said he sought to dissolve the authority in part because its powers of expropriation could still be a threat. "We don't want a dormant authority out there that still has expropriation powers," Willmott said. "A lot of people feel it has this negative power. It's a threat, really. We don't want it lingering out there, with no economic need."

City Councilman Joe Stagni, who is sponsoring the resolution, recalled how Kenner officials initially balked that the authority included no Kenner representatives, and that it could expropriate property without first conferring with Kenner. "That kind of expansive power to supersede elected representatives, elected by the people of the city was a problem," Stagni said. "I'm tickled we're looking to move ahead with this, and everything is moving forward."

Authority board member Todd Murphy, the president of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, said that when plans rolled forward to keep the airport in its current footprint, board members began to view their own positions as obsolete. He said the agency no longer has money nor authority over airport plans, unlike the New Orleans Aviation Board, which runs Armstrong.

"I think the people on the board recognized the board had outlived its intent and its usefulness," Murphy said. "It's obsolete. ... There is no need for a new airport."

He said he would not be saddened by the board's demise: "I have only enough other meetings to go to."